Just announced, on CNN: the grand jury chose not to indict Darren Wilson on any of the five charges against him, for his shooting and killing Michael Brown, Jr.
Michael's parents ask for 4.5 minutes of silence. They've also asked that people be peaceful, not violent, and not destructive of property. They are looking for something positive to come out of this.
I'll respect that in typing, as well.
nt
From http://fivethirtyeight.com/... :
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics [pdf], U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162,000 federal cases in 2010, the most recent year for which we have data. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in [only] 11 of them.
Wilson’s case was heard in state court, not federal, so the numbers aren’t directly comparable. Unlike in federal court, most states, including Missouri, allow prosecutors to bring charges via a preliminary hearing in front of a judge instead of through a grand jury indictment. That means many routine cases never go before a grand jury. Still, legal experts agree that, at any level, it is extremely rare for prosecutors to fail to win an indictment.
“If the prosecutor wants an indictment and doesn’t get one, something has gone horribly wrong,” said Andrew D. Leipold, a University of Illinois law professor who has written critically about grand juries. “It just doesn’t happen.”
Cases involving police shootings, however, appear to be an exception.
11 / 162,000 = 0.0068%.
A reminder from CBS back in August:
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, the Missouri prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown has deep family roots among police: his father, mother, brother, uncle and cousin all worked for St. Louis' police department, and his father was killed while responding to a call involving a black suspect. ... McCulloch, a Democrat who has been in office since 1991, referenced his father's death in his initial campaign. He survived a Democratic primary and face[d] no Republican opposition in his re-election bid.